Flight bookings to Sri Lanka from January until April 20th were 3.4 per cent up on the same period in 2018.

The tourism highlights were Russia, Australia and China, which showed visitor increases of 45.7, 19.0 and 16.8 per cent respectively.

Jameson Wong, director, business development, APAC, ForwardKeys, said: “At the moment, it is really too early to predict what the effect on tourism to Sri Lanka will be, as the initial wave of cancellations affects trips planned in the very near term.

“If we look back at past terrorist atrocities, it is interesting to note how different the impacts can be.

“In the wake of the bloody siege at the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi, bookings suffered a similar collapse in the immediate aftermath; however, within less than two weeks, international arrivals returned to growth.

“By comparison, it has taken more than three years to see a Tunisian tourism recovery following the massacre on the beach in Sousse in 2015.”